Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Politicization of Ladonna Harris

Home , Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, Carl Albert, LaDonna Harris

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2005

"Her Heritage is Helpful": Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Politicization of Ladonna Harris

Sarah Eppler Janda Cameron University

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Janda, Sarah Eppler, ""Her Heritage is Helpful": Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Politicization of Ladonna Harris" (2005). Great Plains Quarterly. 158. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/158

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. "HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL" RACE, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER IN THE POLITICIZATION OF LADONNA HARRIS

SARAH EPPLER JANDA

"What is it like to lrve matent!" asked Robert the ignorance through which mainstream Kennedy's five-year-old daughter, Kerry, when society viewed Native Americans, and mir- she met LaDonna Harr~sfor the first trme in rored many of Harris's other experiences with 1965. LaDonna assured her that Indians no the media, the and government leaders longer lrved rn "tents" and Kerry's mother, as she rose from humble origins in the Great Ethel, jokingly told LaDonna not to disrllusron Plains to national prominence as a leading the ch~ld.LaDonna insisted that she wanted advocate of Native American rights in the Kerry to have an accurate understanding latter half of the twentieth century. of what Indians were l~ke,to which Kerry Harris helped to integratelawton, Oklahoma, responded by asking if she shot a bow and in the early 1960s, founded Oklahomans for arrow.' The exchange speaks volumes about Indian Opportunity (010) in 1965, and established Americans for Indian Opportunity (AD) in 1970. She also became the fim congressional wife to testify before Congress as an expert on Native Americans, served on a litany of state Key Words: assimilation, civil rights, Comanche, and national committees focusing on everything Oklahoma, racism, stereotypes from mental health and education to women and African Americans, and is the reci~ientof numerous awards for her humanitarian efforts. Sarah Eppler Janda rece~vedhe7 Ph D. m Hzstory from the Universrty of Oklahoma and rs assistant He' most signlfiant work, however, remains in professor of history at Cameron Unlwrsrty m Lnwton, the area ofNative American advocacy, and when Oklnhok. The &Ifwing article is deriied born her LaDonna stepped down as executive director of dissemtion entitled "The intersection of Feminism and AIO in 2002 it marked the &irtysecond anni. Indianness in the Activism of LaDonna Harris and yersary of the founding of the organization and a W~lmaMankiller." milestone in her lifetime of service.l LaDonna was born in rural southwestern [GPQ Fa11 (2005): 211.271 Oklahoma in 1931, and met with presidents

21 1 212 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005 ranging from Lyndon B. Johnson to Bill Clin- territory, language, or social structure through ton because of her expertise on Indian affairs. which to do so," and LaDonna's recollections of Her experiences as an "Okie," an Indian, and a her childhood bear out the significance of social woman in the Great Plains in the mid-twenti- interaction and extended kinship families to eth century laid the foundation for her politi- Comanche ~ulture.~Summertime for LaDonna cal identity and reveal a great deal about race meant an inundation of extended family in the relations and the gender constructs that she home of her grandparents, and at Christmas her ultimately came to challenge. great-grandmother's house swelled with activity. LaDonna says this interaction made her close to all of her great-aunts, great-uncles, and cousins, who "were like brothers and sisters" to her.8 From her earliest memories, elements of These connections were vital to the Comanche, both Comanche tradition and mainstream among whom ethnohistorian Thomas W. white culture infused LaDonna's life. She Kavanagh found that the "nuclear family was learned to speak the Comanche language and usually not an independent entity but cooper- became acquainted with Comanche traditions ated with others to form a bilaterally extended and culture while growing up in the care of ho~sehold."~Both the interdependence of the her maternal grandparents, John and Wick-ie group and the prevalence of extended kin- Tabbytite. Her grandparents had a farm on the ship ties in Comanche culture can be seen in land that they selected in the late nineteenth LaDonna's perception of her relationship to the century as a part of the 1887 Dawes Severalty world around her. For example, LaDonna credits Act.' While the Tabbytite family lived nearly her Comanche heritage with teaching her the thirty miles from the Comanche Nation head- importance of being a strong individual, not for quarters in Lawton, Oklahoma, their farm was its own sake, but for the good of the group. She still considered a part of "Comanche Country." also learned to value all life as sacred and inter- In fact, a sizable portion of what became south- twined.1° western Oklahoma had comprised the Kiowa, Despite LaDonna's sense of being con- Comanche, and Apache Reservation until the nected to a larger community that consisted U.S. government opened the land to white of extended family, fictive kin (those not actu- homesteaders in 1901, just six years prior to ally related by blood but who were considered Oklahoma ~tatehood.~While the combined family), and the Comanche tribe, she still lived population of Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache within the parameters of a poor, rural, predomi- 1n.dians living in southwest Oklahoma in 1931 nantly white community. Negative stereotypes totaled only 5,500, the Native American popu- of Native Americans persisted among many lation in the area managed to sustain a strong whites living in southwest Oklahoma during sense of community even in the face of such this period. Foster argues that Comanches were obstacles as allotment, continued dispossession viewed as inferior, lazy, and financially irrespon- of their land, and the Great Depression, which sible." As such, "they were essentially locked lasted from 1929 until American entry into out of the Anglo economy" and "found them- World War II.5 selves marked as a separate category of people For LaDonna and other Comanches who in their interactions" with the white commu- grew up in the Great Plains, the sense of belong- nityJ2 Racism toward Native Americans left its ing to a community underpinned what it meant imprint on LaDonna as well. She recalled one to be Coman~he.~According to Morris W. instance when a classmate called her and her Foster, "What is most conspicuous about the cousin "gut-eaters," for which her female cousin enduring enterprise of 'being Comanche' is the promptly "whipped up" on the boy who made ability of a people to continue to associate with LaDonna cry.13 She had no idea that not every- one another, not the preservation of a specific one ate intestines, a traditional Comanche food, HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 213 and for the first time she found herself painfully LaDonna described herself as a "stoic Indian confronted with what it meant to be differ- girl" and Fred as "poor white trash."17 Shortly ent. That evening, when LaDonna tearfully after their marriage, in the summer of 1949, told her grandmother about the incident, her they moved to Norman, and LaDonna became grandmother cheered her up by telling her that pregnant with their first child, Kathryn. In white people ate mussels and crawdads.14 This 1952 Fred graduated with his bachelor's degree of course shocked LaDonna. She learned to in history and political science, and remained channel her hurt feelings and cope with anger, at the university to study law for the next three but she never forgot her early encounters with years. the prejudice she experienced growing up in the The partnership that began with LaDonna's Great Plains. They stayed with her and later fed bid for turkey queen deepened considerably her determination to fight against discrimina- during Fred's college and law school days. Early tion. Early on, LaDonna drew on the lessons on, Fred developed the habit of sharing with taught by her Comanche grandparents to make LaDonna what he learned in his classes. It not sense out of the world. In the critical process of only brought the two of them closer, it became identity formation, LaDonna encountered two a key study habit for Fred as he prepared for important factors: first, being Comanche made exams. This tendency to discuss his ideas and her different; second, being Comanche provided newly acquired knowledge with LaDonna estab- a lens through which to view and give meaning lished a trend that defined their relationship to the larger world outside her tribe and beyond when Fred later became involved in politics. the Great Plains. Their time in Norman also coincided with the emergence of the civil rights movement nationally and within Oklahoma, and awakened them to the extent of the profound prejudice against LaDonna met her future husband, Fred African Americans.18 Harris, while attending high school in the small town of Walters, Oklahoma. While LaDonna "wasn't very impressed with his physical appearance" at first, she eventually That awakening arrived for Norman and responded to his persistent overtures.15 He for the Harrises during volatile challenges to offered to run her campaign for turkey queen segregation during the late 1940s and early of Cotton County, and although she did not 1950s.19 Norman was a notorious "sundown win, this local beauty contest marked the town," where African Americans had not beginning of a partnership that lasted for over dared to stay after sunset for most of the town's thirty years. After Fred Harris graduated from short history. However, in the mid-1940s a high school in the spring of 1948, he attended handful of African American students, with the University of Oklahoma in Norman. the help of the National Association for the Ignoring the objections of their families, Fred Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and LaDonna married the following year, just began challenging Oklahoma segregation laws. before she received her high school diploma. The 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision in The fact that LaDonna was half Comanche Plessy v. Ferguson, which laid the legal founda- and Fred was white did not appear to be an tion for segregation by allowing that separate issue with the young couple. Historically, many but equal facilities could be provided for blacks Indian women in the Great Plains had married and whites, came under increasing fire both in white men, including LaDonna's own mother, the nation at large and in Oklahoma in par- which speaks to the diverse and multicultural ticular. According to Oklahoma law, anyone of nature of the American West.16 In the broader African descent was recognized as "negro" or context of this sort of regional identification, "colored" in the state constitution. All other 214 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005 people fell into the category of "white."20 This LaDonna watched African Americans chal- language not only set up significant prejudice lenging racism in Norman she began to relate against African Americans, it underscored the it to her own experiences. She remembered ambiguous status of Native Americans in the an occasion as a young girl in Walters when state. the Native American children were separated As a result of lengthy court battles fought from the white children for purposes of immu- by the NAACP, George W. McLaurin became nization. Recalling that incident, she now had the first African American admitted to the a larger framework of racial discrimination University of Oklahoma Graduate College within which to place both her experiences in 1948." In the summer of 1949, just a few and those of African Americans, and the bla- months after Fred and LaDonna Harris were tant manifestations of racism against African married, Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher became the first Americans soon fostered within her a deeper African American admitted to the University understanding of prejudice.25 of Oklahoma School of Law.22When Fred and Yet Harris's recognition of the similarities LaDonna made their first home together in in racism toward blacks and Indians were not Norman that same summer, racism still infested always shared by others. In fact, one problem the town on the heels of forced integration of with the emerging dialogue on racism in the the graduate college. Living in Norman in the mid-twentieth century was the tendency to early 1950s, LaDonna became aware of racism view racism strictly in terms of black and white. in a way she had not fully appreciated before, More often than not the quest for civil rights through the daughter of the principal of the signified an effort to end discrimination only black school in Norman, who babysat for her against African Americans rather than against daughter Kathryn. One afternoon, LaDonna all ethnic and racial groups suffering from saw her babysitter standing outside a movie the- oppression. Connections between the struggle ater protesting racial discrimination. She then for equality by various groups did increase in realized that people she knew were participating the 1960s and 1970s, but there remained a in the battle against segregation, that it was powerful tendency among whites and many more than a distant phenomenon or a headline African Americans to view racism through a in a newspaper.23 lens that omitted other people of color. That Around the Great Plains and across the tendency grew out of a historic tendency in the nation, there was nothing subtle about racism United States to view whiteness and blackness toward African Americans. In a 1941 attempt as opposites, which in turn made the status to head off desegregation, the Oklahoma state of Native Americans unclear. Blacks were legislature made it a misdemeanor for blacks perceived as a threat and therefore the source and whites to attend schools t~gether.'~The of white loathing during much of American implication this law had for Native Americans history (and particularly in the mid-twentieth proved less clear. Oklahoma had, after all, been century), while Indians grew ever more invis- the site of many Indian reservations prior to ible until becoming almost mythical tokens of statehood in 1907 and boasted a significant old Wild West imagery.26 population of Native Americans from many Fred and LaDonna took an important step tribes. Like people from other parts of the toward challenging those stereotypes when Fred Great Plains, many native Oklahomans who graduated first in his class from law school in identified themselves as "white" had retained 1954 and he and LaDonna moved to Lawton, quaint stories of Indian ancestry. And yet, where he began practicing law. Although they while the discrimination against Native left Norman behind, their introduction to Americans did not follow the same conspicu- racial tension and the struggle for civil rights ous pattern as that against African Americans, had prepared them for the social challenges it still served the same function. When they chose to confront in southwest Oklahoma. HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 215

Some of those challenges were highlighted in strategies for integrating the city.29 According the same year that Fred graduated, when U.S. to local civil rights activist Maggie Gover, "the Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren handed idea of a meeting came from a group of women down the unanimous decision in Brown u. Board who had been getting together for lunch to mull of Education of Topeka deeming the doctrine of over what was happening and what might be separate but equal "inherently unequal" and done about it."30 These meetings generally took calling for the desegregation of public schools.27 place on Wednesday nights at the home of one Yet integration came slowly and not without of the members. LaDonna Harris was one of the considerable effort by grassroots activists.28 founding members of what came to be called Although Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and other simply "the Group." She recalled how their African Americans had gained entrance to the meetings "grew like magic," and said that "we graduate college at the University of Oklahoma, would have a covered-dish supper and then talk the undergraduate school was not integrated about the issues and integrating Lawton, par- until 1955, not long after the ruling in the ticularly restaurant^."^^ In a 1965 brief history Brown case. of the Group, members described it as a "dis- Indeed, cities all across the United States organized organization" with no constitution, struggled with the tumultuous process of secur- by-laws, charter, membership roster, or anything ing basic rights for African Americans. In else that signified an official organization.12 1956, over ninety southern congressmen signed Intent on maintaining the informal structure the Southern Manifesto, which condemned of their organization, the members took turns the Brown decision and pledged to fight leading the meetings. Dubbed the "Honcho," desegregation. The following year, President or "Head Honcho," the leader of the meetings Dwight D. Eisenhower sent soldiers from the changed from one week to the next. LaDonna 101s Airborne Division to Central High in Harris explained, "Everybody had to chair it Little Rock, Arkansas, in order to protect nine [the meetings] so there wouldn't be any fighting African American students who attempted to for leader~hip."~~ enroll in the previously all-white school. Racial According to the Group's own history, tensions teetered on the brink as federal troops the purpose of the organization was to "make were sent into the South to enforce federal Lawton a truly integrated community."34 law for the first time since Reconstruction. Their first meeting established that African Fortunately, the Little Rock situation did not Americans "felt alone in their efforts to secure escalate into a second civil war, but much of equal opportunities" and that they had no the country held its breath in the face of such "desire to demonstrate or engage in violent dramatic racial turmoil. The civil rights move- actions."35 The significance of that first meet- ment swept the nation and polarized its citizens ing can be seen through an examination of over the issue of equality. how the Group proceeded from that point forward. Significantly, the organization brought together people from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, which allowed its Influenced by that movement and by demon- members to share their experiences and learn strations they witnessed in Norman, Fred and from one another. The Group described its LaDonna Harris brought a sense of purpose with membership as including "business men, civic them to Lawton and eventually worked with leaders, NAACP officials, educators, clergy- others in their new community to fight racism men, labor officials, military men, civil ser- and integrate the city. In September of 1963, a vice personnel, and just plain folk."36 Equally small group of about thirteen people composed important to the diversity of the Group was of African Americans, whites, and Native their desire to find a peaceful solution to the Americans in Lawton began meeting to discuss problem of discrimination and segregation. 216 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005

The Group began compiling a list of all of the segregated restaurants and other establishments in Lawton, and then "black and white members The commitment of Fred and LaDonna would visit a segregated facility together."j7 In Harris to civil rights is obvious. Far more ambig- fact, this list "actually determined the Group's uous, however, is the perception of both Fred method of operation" because if a given estab- and LaDonna's ethnicity, which reveals the lishment "was determined to be segregated" fluidity of contradictory notions of ethnicity in then "one of the persons in The Group who the Great plain^!^ Some people thought Fred knew the owner or proprietor would try to con- Harris was Native American because of his dark vince him that he should integrate."38While the complexion and his affinity for Comanche cul- Group found this approach to be "successful in ture. At times LaDonna Harris was clearly iden- most cases," LaDonna Harris recounted an all tified as "Comanche" or "half Comanche." Yet, too common response from proprietors of busi- in the context of African American struggles to nesses who seemed not to grasp the inherent gain equal access to public facilities in Lawton, inequality of segregation.39 One woman who LaDonna's ethnicity seems conspicuously invis- owned a diner not far from Fort Sill said, "'Well, ible at times. For instance, "a black business- if we don't want to eat with Negroes, why do man in Lawton" said Fred and LaDonna "were they want to eat with us?"'40 Nevertheless, the among the first white people to join" African Group made a number of important advances Americans in the effort to integrate Lawton. toward securing greater civil rights. The man added that "LaDonna picketed with Grassroots activism in Lawton, as in thou- us. We trust these two."44 While these com- sands of communities across the United States, ments were intended to be complimentary, did something legislation alone could not accom- they clearly designated Fred and LaDonna as plish: it quite literally set out to change one mind outsiders, albeit trustworthy outsiders. Similarly, at a time through dialogue and interpersonal Betty Owens, another African American who relationships. Less than three years after the for- was at the center of Lawton integration efforts, mation of the Group, Lawton's only black doctor, also remembered Fred and LaDonna as "among E. A. Owens, who served as the president of the the first white persons involved" with the Lawton NAACP chapter in addition to being a Group.45 The implication is not that these two member of the Group, asserted that "by personal African Americans were unaware of LaDonna's contact about 95% of the public accommodations Comanche heritage, but rather, that juxta- were opened to all." 41 posed against their own racial identity amid Ultimately, the struggle to achieve an inte- the volatile civil rights movement, LaDonna grated Lawton spanned many years and encom- seemed white. Their own sense of "blackness" passed the efforts of numerous individuals, of and "otherness" clearly differentiated them from which Fred and LaDonna Harris were only LaDonna. two. By the time the city confronted its "most To further complicate the issue, by the early dramatic episode" in the integration effort, 1960s LaDonna belonged to a white upper- involving Lawton's only amusement park and middle-class "ethnicity" of sorts. As Fred's politi- swimming pool-the aptly named Doe Doe cal career grew by leaps and bounds (he served Park-Fred and LaDonna Harris had already for eight years in the Oklahoma Senate and was entered into a much wider social and political elected to the U.S. Senate in 1964), both Fred arena in the nation's ~apital.4~The role played and LaDonna increasingly became a part of the by LaDonna Harris in the integration of Lawton "whiteness" that so many African Americans and the way African Americans viewed her, found themselves defined against. At a time and however, foreshadowed LaDonna's later human- place in which the very words "civil rights" and itarian efforts to protect the civil rights of people "equality" primarily signified the fight to end the nationally as well as internationally. oppression of black America, the light-skinned dER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 217 beauty from Comanche Country who grew up to marry a senator, live in the suburbs, and have three children, was indeed caught between ethnicities. One of the most powerful contributions of the later American Indian Movement came in the form of reinventing, redefining, and reasserting Indianne~s.4~Because this had yet to happen and because civil rights connoted a black struggle, the token status of Native Americans persisted. That Fred and LaDonna Harris were nicknamed "Freddie and the Indian" by one of Fred's colleagues in the state legislature underscores the tokenism so indelicately apparent in the status of American Indians in the mid-twentieth cent~ry.4~Had Fred Harris been married to an African American woman instead of a Comanche woman, there can be little doubt that "Freddie and the Negro" or "Freddie and the Colored Woman" would have been viewed as neither quaint, charming, nor FIG. 1. LaDonna Harris on the phone during Fred unthreatening. Harris's bid for the U.S. Senate in 1964. Courtesy of LaDonna Harris, President of Americans for Indian "FREDDIEAND THE INDIAN" Opportunity.

The public relationship of Fred and LaDonna Harris became one of the defining character- part of his political career seemed natural to the istics of Fred's political persona because of the two of them, it raised more than a few eyebrows centrality of LaDonna in her husband's career. and did not come without criticism from friends Fred's involvement in politics began as a college and colleagues alike.49 Kathryn Harris remem- student when he joined the Young Democrats bers a Lawton neighbor being "very critical" of chapter at the University of Oklahoma. He LaDonna for being so involved in Fred's career even ran for the Oklahoma state legislature and for not being home more often.50 while still in law school. He lost in that first After Fred's election to the Oklahoma state attempt but won the 1956 election and became senate, LaDonna frequently joined Fred on an Oklahoma state senator. Fred remained in the senate floor, sitting by his desk. Both were the Oklahoma state senate until 1964 when he in their mid-twenties when Fred took office, left to fill a U.S. Senate seat after the death of making them considerably younger than the Robert S. Kerr!8 Fred always included LaDonna politicians with whom they interacted, and in his political career and she became a crucial LaDonna felt that her assistance made Fred asset. This young pair from rural Oklahoma appear more mature.51 However, as the only ultimately became one of the most prominent senate wife present, it took people time to adjust political couples of the period. Just as Fred had to her unusual presence. LaDonna explained discussed his coursework with LaDonna while that she would watch people to determine studying at OU, he also shared his work in the what role she could play and how best to act, state legislature with her. Both described their and in the state senate she solved this problem marriage as one in which they shared every- by serving as a hostess until eventually people thing with each other and were each other's grew accustomed to seeing her there. She best friend. While making LaDonna an integral poured drinks, emptied ashtrays, and ironically 218 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005

acquiesced to conventional assumptions about and acting as unofficial staff, LaDonna sur- women's roles while simultaneously challenging passed this sort of "helpmate" status relatively them.52 Her very presence on the floor of the quickly. In fact, by the end of the decade Fred state senate stood in stark contrast to percep- had become her helpmate in many respects. tions of the proper role for women in general She utilized his staff, and on several occasions and political wives in particular. Yet by acting he responded to correspondence for her. The as a hostess she played a traditional female senator made good use of his wife's talents as role in a nontraditional setting. She offered a well. He received numerous invitations to serve further challenge to gender assumptions when on state committees and organizations and photographed on the senate floor while very could not possibly accept them all. On occa- noticeably pregnant with her second child, sion, Fred sent LaDonna in his place, and this Bryon. When the picture appeared in the most arrangement opened the door for LaDonna to widely circulated newspaper in the state, the develop her own political identity. When the Daily Oklahoman, Fred Harris remembered it Southwest Center for Human Relations at the causing considerable grumbling about the inap- University of Oklahoma invited Fred to par- propriateness of her being in the senate offices ticipate in a weeklong seminar on civil rights, in such a delicate ~ondition.~~Perhaps equally he could not get away and asked LaDonna troubling to Fred's colleagues was the fact that to attend instead. Fred told the sponsors of LaDonna sometimes joined them for after-hours the seminar that he would support whatever socializing. LaDonna related an incident in LaDonna said and that they would basically which she accompanied Fred to a restaurant to be getting two for one by having LaDonna in meet several of his colleagues. The other men attendan~e.~~ brought their mistresses, rather than their wives, making LaDonna's presence particularly discon- certing.j4 LaDonna did, however, do more than simply While attending the civil rights seminar, spend time on the senate floor and play hostess LaDonna grew disturbed by the exclusive focus to her husband's colleagues. She actively cam- on discrimination against African Ameri~ans.~~ paigned for her husband in both the 1956 elec- Not once did she hear anything about Native tion and in his successful bid for reelection in Americans. LaDonna tried to raise this issue 1960. In 1962, when Fred unsuccessfully ran for but could not find the words to express how she governor of Oklahoma, LaDonna figured promi- felt. She finally burst into tears of frustration nently in his campaign literature. Her visibility after someone told her that there were no Indian seems noteworthy because of the particular problems in Oklahoma because the Bureau of aspects of LaDonna's life that were empha- Indian Affairs took care of them.59 She and Fred sized.55 Here was a woman who fulfilled both had always worked so closely that they spoke as traditional female roles as a "devoted mother one; unfortunately for LaDonna, it was with and housewife," but who also involved herself in Fred's voice. In his absence, LaDonna realized supporting programs for "Indian progress" and that if she wanted to make people understand provided "the woman's view" on a host of issues Indian problems she would have to find a way to her senator h~sband.'~The gendered imag- to articulate her concerns. She still saw herself ery used to project both the public and private as a stoic Indian girl and had grown comfort- attributes of LaDonna Harris seems significant able with Fred acting as their voice and she as given that the campaign literature emphasized their int~ition.~~Over time and with a lot of precisely those things that were intended to give practice, she became more comfortable speaking Fred and LaDonna the greatest appeal. to groups of people and her frustration became While it was not that unusual to see the wives an asset once she learned to channel her strong of politicians campaigning for their husbands feelings into action. HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 219

FIG. 2. The Harris family in 1967. Left to right, Laura Harris, Fred Harris, LaDonna Harris, Kathryn Harris (Tijerina), and Byron Harris. Courtesy of LaDonna Harris, President of Americans for Indian Opportunity.

The visibility of LaDonna in Fred's work, objection by some that LaDonna played too big such as her attendance at the civil rights a role in Fred's political career, others praised seminar, her presence on the senate floor, and their teamwork.63One newspaper commented, her campaigning, continued to draw attention "Even in a town where husband and wife teams from supporters as well as critics. However, the are no novelty, the young Fred Harrises (both criticism regarding her visibility in his career only 34) stand out as one of the smoothest at the state level paled in comparison to what working combinations to come along."64 they faced in his bid for the U.S. Senate. Some On the surface LaDonna appeared in many of the old guard from the Robert S. Kerr camp ways to be a traditional wife. Shortly after Fred told Fred there was "too much LaDonna" in his became a U.S. senator, LaDonna criticized campaign.61When Fred gave speeches he typi- congressional wives who were absent from cam- cally said, "LaDonna and I did such and such" paign functions: "If she's campaigning with him, or "LaDonna and I think this or that." For he if she's standing right back of him, if she's shar- and LaDonna this seemed a logical outgrowth ing with him, then she's being a real wife. That's of their close relationship; they shared so what I am and am going to continue to be."65 much that it became second nature for Fred to Her daughters, Kathryn and Laura, were flabber- include her in his speeches.62And, despite the gasted years later when they came across an old 220 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005 interview in which their mother said she did not social expectations placed on congressional help her husband make any decisions and that wives. She had no desire to become "a painted she just supported him. Laughing, LaDonna backdrop" as she described some of the Senate explained, "I was smart enough to know what wives.71 By this point in her life, LaDonna the general public expected of me at that wanted to work on behalf of Native American time."66 LaDonna Harris was not exactly the rights, not attend social functions with other "typical1' stay-at-home wife and mother. Early congressional wives.72 She still struggled to on she developed a keen interest in politics and verbalize her passionate feelings about helping a desire to work on behalf of oppressed people. Native Americans as she and Fred adapted to Some of her Lawton peers even wondered how their life in Washington. the Harris children would turn out given their LaDonna wanted Native Americans to mother's flurry of political activity.67 As Laura maintain cultural autonomy and to have Harris explained, her mother was not a "milk greater access to mainstream economic and and cookies" kind of mom.68 Instead, both Fred social opportunities. The tension between and LaDonna Harris and those who knew them the preservation of heritage and opportunities best in this critical period have described their in a dominant society later manifested itself marriage as a full partnership in every sense of in the founding of Oklahomans for Indian the word.69 LaDonna became crucial to Fred's Opportunity (O10).73 The issue of Indian career, as he would to hers. identity, embodied in the tension between par- ticipation in mainstream society and cultural IN THE NATION'SCAPITAL autonomy, permeated both government discourse on Indian assistance and the manifesta- When Fred and LaDonna moved from tion and articulation of "Indianness" in society Lawton to Virginia to be near the nation's at large. The seeming contradiction between capital in the mid-1960s, they were catapulted maintaining Native American traditions while into a very different world than the one they functioning in dominant society posed a con- left behind in Oklahoma. Suddenly they found siderable challenge to Indian rights advocates. themselves socializing with President Lyndon LaDonna Harris dismissed the idea that a B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. contradiction existed or that Native Americans They became good friends with their neigh- could not do both. Instead, she involved herself bors, Sen. Robert Kennedy and his wife, Ethel, in mainstream politics and community issues after LaDonna met Ethel at a Senate Ladies while identifying herself as a "wild Comanche" Club function. Fred and LaDonna also made and working for Indian causes74 Despite her friends with Vice President Hubert Humphrey own conviction that one could exist in both and his wife, Muriel, as well as Sen. Walter worlds, it indeed posed a tremendous challenge Mondale from Minnesota and his wife, Joan. for her to help others do the same. "I was lucky," Fred and LaDonna soon were socializing with Harris recalled. "Somehow, I learned to make it a veritable "who's who" of Washington politi- in both worlds-the white and the Indian."75 cians. One journalist described Fred Harris as "the only person in Washington who could ROMANTICIZEDINDIANNESS IN GREAT have breakfast with Lyndon Johnson, lunch PLAINS MYTHOLOGY with Hubert Humphrey, and dinner with Robert Kennedy."70 Stereotypes of Native Americans further Socializing aside, Fred faced many demands aggravated the struggle to reconcile participa- as he settled into his new job, and LaDonna tion in dominant society with the preservation confronted a new set of expectations as the of cultural identity. At the same time as the wife of a junior senator. She had three children founder of 010 embraced her heritage and to raise and at times felt unprepared for the promoted the entrance of Indians into the HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 221 mainstream, she also confronted the simultane- Americans. Moreover, Fred's characterization of ous ignorance and fascination that character- LaDonna as "his Indian problem" mocked the ized much of America's perceptions of Native very derogatory way in which many referred to Americans. After all, Fred and LaDonna's "the Indian problem."80 While today such com- relationship could have been the basis for any ments would likely be construed as racist and number of Western films set in the Great Plains sexist, in the mid-1960s it allowed Senator Harris in which a white cowboy and beautiful Indian to identify with both his peers and his con- fall in love. As a child, Fred and LaDonna's stituents by first relating to their ignorance before son, Byron, often told people that his dad was educating them on Indian issues. Still, the fact a cowboy and his mother was an Indian, cap- that employing stereotypes of Native Americans turing the cpintessential mythology that wed seemed a useful tool in educating Congress and Indian and white cultures in the Great Plains.76 the American public speaks volumes. Aside from this sort of Hollywood Western This use of humor to combat ignorance helps imagery that captured people's imaginations, explain why many of his peers in Congress the lack of understanding regarding the legal considered Fred Harris to be an expert on status of Native Americans proved an even Indian issues, and why Harris characterized greater challenge for LaDonna. For example, himself as a "self-admitted expert on Comanche a representative from one of the most well- Indian history and culture" while joking with respected museums in the United States, the the media about his wife's backgr~und.~~He Smithsonian Institution, met with LaDonna to commented at times that LaDonna was "fierce discuss sponsoring a Native American heritage and warlike, but I domesticated her."82 Fred project and, in the course of the conversation, also told one reporter, "When a pretty Indian asked if Indians could vote.77 girl with brains leaves the reservation, watch Ignorance about the status and culture of out!" because "anything can happen."83 The Native Americans posed a significant obstacle in fact that LaDonna never lived on a reservation the struggle to improve opportunities for Indians. did not prevent Fred from utilizing stereotypes In fact, Fred Harris often told people that when of Native Americans as a public relations tool. LaDonna first voiced her desire to interest people He did, however, see such anecdotes as a way in Indian problems, even he responded, "What of poking fun at the general lack of knowledge Indian problems? I've lived all my life among about Native Americans rather than with the Indians and the only Indian problem I know of is intention of simply perpetuating stereotypes and the one I married."78 In fact, he made these com- ignorance. ments in a speech to his fellow U.S. senators in While this sort of lighthearted commentary 1966. Explaining the context of such remarks, the may have inspired a few laughs, the ramifica- former senator said that this parodied a common tions were quite significant. These remarks response to his and LaDonna's raising the issue of evoked a vivid image in an era of social and problems facing Native Americans. For instance, political upheaval. The message seemed clear: a friend of Fred Harris from Oklahoma once told Indians were not a threat. Moreover, they Fred he had gone to school with lots of Indians could be reformed and remade in the image of and they did not seem to him to have any prob- the white man. So long as assimilation, or more lems. When Fred asked his friend what had appropriately integration, of Native Americans happened to those Indian classmates, his friend into the mainstream remained the ultimate responded that he was not sure but that he did goal, the advocacy of Indian rights did not pose not think any of them had graduated from high a danger. On the surface, Fred and LaDonna's school.79 Drawing on conversations such as this relationship provided the ultimate metaphor one, Fred utilized humor as a way to identify with for assimilation. She had married a white man, people and put them at ease before turning to the and as the wife of a U.S. senator represented sober facts surrounding the conditions of Native the epitome of the American dream, right 222 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005 down to their three children and suburban ence she did and met with such an enthusiastic Virginia home located just a few doors down response by government officials had her rhetoric from Robert and Ethel Kennedy's house. Yet not been in keeping with the ultimate goal of LaDonna Harris strongly rejected the notion of the federal government to integrate Indians. assimilation, maintaining that her Comanche As the epitome of the "good citizen Indian," values defined both her and her life's work.84 LaDonna represented a number of positive attributes to the nation. First, she symbolized the beneficial aspects of assimilation as a Native American who had successfully become a part of Regardless of LaDonna Harris's own feel- mainstream society. Second, Harris acted as an ings about assimilation in the United States, advocate for Indians without appearing radical, American society in the 1960s did not readily especially in comparison to the young activists accept or even understand such sentiments. in the American Indian Movement. The pictures The media interest in LaDonna Harris, the of LaDonna that appeared in newspapers and comments about her high cheekbones, the magazines during this period very clearly identi- headlines that drew on stereotypes of Native fied her as belonging to the mainstream. Finally, Americans, and even to some extent the jokes in addition to being a "model" Indian, she also made by Fred Harris all revealed that under- fulfilled the expectations of a congressional wife neath the spirit of reform lay an uneasiness in a way that facilitated a positive image of both about race relations. In the 1960s, reform gen- her and Fred. erated conflict, and while the government paid lip service to improving the condition of Native Americans, the assumption that improvement and assimilation were one and the same left To be sure, their public relationship had little consideration for an alternative view of important ramifications both for their careers Native Americans. The "good" Indian or the and the Indian advocacy they supported. One "progressive" Indian was the one who entered newspaper described LaDonna as a "unique into the mainstream, shedding his or her cul- Senatorial asset" and claimed that "her heritage tural baggage along the way. Moreover, as a is helpful."85 She frequently drew praise for help- politician from conservative Oklahoma, Fred's ing Fred with his career, enabling her to move

use of humor about LaDonna's heritage may forward with her own activism without appear-- - have reassured the "good ole boys" network ing to threaten her husband.86 She represented that neither he nor his wife were a threat to the both the ideal wife and a positive image of the existing power structure. Ultimately, both Fred assimilated Indian. As one reporter indicated, and LaDonna Harris proved too liberal and "Washington must be changing its mind about indeed too radical for their constituents in the the Comanche Indian."87 Here again, while the Plains. Still, the success of Fred and LaDonna message in the article paid a compliment to at the national level hinged, at least in part, LaDonna on the surface, the premise from which on their insistence that Indians be encouraged it originated smacked of racially distorted stereo- to participate in the mainstream society and types of Native Americans. Despite having to economy. contend with such stereotypes, LaDonna man- As a prominent interracial couple, the image aged to use socially constructed notions of both put forth by Fred and LaDonna had significant Indianness and femininity to her advantage. implications for how society perceived them. The image of LaDonna Harris as a doting and Few Indians enjoyed both the high profile and supportive wife afforded a certain legitimacy to unthreatening role that LaDonna Harris held her own entrance into the political world in the at the national level during the 1960s, and it unofficial, but ultimately highly effective, role is unlikely she would have reached the audi- of congressional wife. Furthermore, her public HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 223 relationship with Fred and the way in which problems confronting Native Americans and his prominence and her "Indianness" served to praised LaDonna's efforts on their behalf.90 reinforce the status and effectiveness of each On the one hand, the language used smacks other facilitated their success in advocating for of racism and distorted views of Indians. On Native American rights. She helped legitimize the other, the purpose does not seem to have his role as an expert on the problems of Native been merely to mock Indians. Beneath head- Americans, but he provided "the muscle behind lines such as "Senator's Wife on Warpath" her convi~tions."~~In a period when race rela- were stories that promoted Indian issues, tions teetered precariously and radicalism per- rather than simply denigrating and dismissing meated the mainstream, the rise of LaDonna them. In short, embedded in the use of racist Harris to national prominence illustrates the stereotypes also lies the effort to identify with centrality of the image she projected to the Native Americans. That said, the racist imag- success of her advocacy. She used her position ery of such headlines cannot be ignored. The to gain attention and support for her own work fact remains that the permissibility of depict- to better the conditions and opportunities of ing this image of Native Americans hinged on Indians. a comfortably ignorant fascination with the Though not an elected official, LaDonna quaintness of Indians. Harris occupied a unique role in Washington. That Native Americans were viewed as Because her advocacy was tied so intimately relics of the past rather than as a group in with that of her husband's, they reinforced each need of serious consideration explains some other's work. People considered Fred an expert of the popular depictions of LaDonna and on Indian issues in part because of his marriage other Indians. Certainly it would have been to an Indian. In an address to Congress on unacceptable to see a comparable newspaper Indian policy, Representative Alan Simpson headline about African Americans, regard- from Wyoming complimented Fred on his less of how supportive the story underneath marriage to LaDonna: "Although I cannot com- might have been. Yet because of the histori- mand a lovely Comanche wife, I can say that cally ambiguous status of Native Americans, my Uncle Dick married a Shoshone Indian. So a different standard existed for them. Both I can at least I can say that I have an Indian literally and figuratively, Native Americans relative."89 held a mascotlike status in the United States. The language employed by members of As Mary Ann Weston found in her study of Congress and society at large reflected a media coverage of Native Americans, journal- growing preoccupation with identity poli- ism has gone beyond simply reflecting "images tics. Referring to LaDonna Harris and other and stereotypes prevalent in popular culture."91 Indians as "being on the warpath," "putting Stereotyping, argues Weston, "does not depend on their warpaint," and "holding powwows" only on the use of crude language or factual (instead of meetings) capitalized on stereo- inaccuracies" but also "comes from the choice types of Native Americans. Certainly racist by of stories to report, the ways the stories are today's standards, it is important to point out organized and written, [and] the phrases used that much of this vernacular signified an ear- in headline^."^^ Ironically, many journalists no nest effort by non-Indians to relate to Native doubt viewed their depictions of the wife of a Americans. Just as Fred Harris used humor to prominent senator as "going on the warpath" educate the public and his congressional peers as merely a cute play on words. about problems facing Native Americans, many newspapers nurtured a serious desire THE THIRDU.S. SENATOR to educate as well. For instance, the article about LaDonna Harris entitled "Warpaint Despite having to contend with the contin- for the Senator's Wife" articulated a litany of ued stereotyping of Indians, in just a few years 224 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005

LaDonna became a nationally known and and Fred first arrived in the capital in the respected authority on Native Americans. One mid-1960s, LaDonna thought she would go magazine article described LaDonna Harris crazy folding bandages for the Red Cross along as "tough, smart, angry" and went on to say, with other congressional wives. Despite the "From that anger may grow a national realiza- emergence of the modern women's movement, tion that Indians should no longer be consid- this was the type of civic service expected and ered wards of the nation, but, instead, human encouraged from political wives?8 Within just beings with very human, basic problems."y3 a few short years no one would expect to see Articles in national magazines such as this LaDonna Harris folding bandages or organiz- one further propelled LaDonna Harris into the ing tea parties. She had become a respected national spotlight and brought the condition of leader in her own right. She accomplished Native Americans to the attention of those in this by expanding assumptions about the tra- power and the general public. ditional role of women rather than directly In many ways LaDonna ultimately surpassed challenging them, for the word "feminism" had Fred in both prominence and effectiveness not yet crept into LaDonna's vocabulary. That in advocating for reform of Indian rights and would come later. government legislation. While Fred remained supportive of LaDonna's work, it rankled him when people began referring to her as a senator. He told Myra McPherson that he could take 1. Malvina Stephenson, "LaDonna Harris May Be Answer to TV Myth," Tulsa Daily World, May 18, everything "until they started calling LaDonna 1965, 10. 'Senator."' That, added Fred, was "where the 2. While LaDonna Harris stepped down as liberation stuff just stops."94 Sure enough, as the executive director of A10 in the fall of 2002, LaDonna rose in national stature, she at times she remains president of the organization, and her seemed the biggest competition Fred faced. No daughter Laura Harris, who has since served as AIO's executive director, says her mother has not doubt Fred's pride in his wife's work did not slowed down at all. Laura Harris, in a telephone stem a sense of irritation when, in 1967, Ernest interview with author, July 24, 2003. Woods, area coordinator of the Oklahoma 3. LaDonna Harris, LaDonna Harris: A Comanche Community Action Program, wrote to him Life, ed. H. Henrietta Stockel (Lincoln: University saying: "Oklahoma is indeed fortunate to have of Nebraska Press, 2000), 2. The Dawes Severalty Act was an effort to end the collective ownership Mrs. Harris, as a virtual third United States of land by Native Americans by essentially turning Senat~r."~~Robert Kennedy also recognized them into farmers and forcing them to assimilate into LaDonna's contributions and characterized her white society. As a result of this policy, American as "one of the most ardent champions of justice Indians lost over 60 percent of their land between for the American Indian."96 1887 and 1934. See Frederick Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1800-1920 In a relatively short time LaDonna Harris (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984); Janet went from being a small-town girl from the A. McDonnell, Dispossession of the Indian Estate, 1887- Great Plains to testifying before Congress as 1934 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991). an expert on Native American problems in 4. Morris W. Foster, Being Comanche: A Social Oklahoma. This marked only the beginning, History of an American Indian Community (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991), 103. however, of the work that continued to define 5. Ibid., 102. her life. While friends from Lawton never saw 6. For a discussion of Plains Indians, see Peter LaDonna as a traditional homemaker, and Iverson, ed., The Plains Indians of the Twentieth Washington newspapers realized she was no Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, "tea party congressional wife," she did in fact 1985); John Canfield Ewers, Plains Indian History and Culture: Essays on Continuity and Change utilize assumptions about traditional female (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997); roles to effect change for Native Americans, Paul Howard Carlson, The Plains Indians (College women, and African Ameri~ans?~When she Station: Texas A&M Press, 1998). HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 225

7. Foster, Being Comanche, 20. Phillip J. Deloria, Playing lndian (New Haven, CT: Yale 8. LaDonna Harris, 3. University Press, 1998). 9. Thomas W. Kavanagh, Comanche Political 27. See Jean Van Delinder, "Early Civil Rights History: An Ethnohistorical Perspective, 1706-1875 Activism in Topeka, Kansas, Prior to the 1954 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), 41. Brown Case," Great Plains Quarterly 21 (Winter 10. LaDonna Harris, in a telephone interview 2001): 45-61. with author, November 20, 2000, Bernalillo, NM. 28. For a discussion of grassroots activism in 11. Foster, Being Comanche, 106. the civil rights movement, see John Dittmer, Local 12. Ibid. People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi 13. Ibid., 2. (Champaign, IL: University of Chicago Press, 14. LaDonna Harris, draft of biographical profile, 1994). p. 2, Series 1, Box 4, LaDonna Harris Collection, 29. "A History of 'the Group,"'June 7, 1965, p. 1, Native American Educational Studies College Folder 1, Sarah "Betty" Owens Collection (hereaf- (hereafter LHC, NEAS), Chicago. ter Owens Collection), Museum of the Great Plains 15. Ibid. (hereafter MGP), Lawton, OK. 16. For a discussion of the experience of women 30. Ibid., 6. in the American West, see Elizabeth Jameson and 31. LaDonna Harris, 54. Susan Armitage, eds., The Women's West (Norman: 32. "History of 'the Group,"' p. 1, Owens Collection, University of Oklahoma Press, 1987); Glenda Riley, MGP. The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women 33. LaDonna Harris, 55. on Prairie and the Plains (Lawrence: University 34. Ibid. of Kansas, 1988); Linda Williams Reese, Women 35. Ibid. of Oklahoma, 1890-1920 (Norman: University of 36. Ibid., 2. Oklahoma Press, 1997); Elizabeth Jameson and 37. "A Struggle for Equality-A Community Susan Armitage, eds., Writing the Range: Race, View," booklet published by the Museum of the Class, and Culture in the Women's West (Norman: Great Plains to accompany an exhibit on the inte- University of Oklahoma Press, 1997). gration of Lawton, 2003, p. 21. 17. LaDonna Harris, in a telephone interview 38. "History of 'the Group,"' pp. 1-2, Folder 1, with author, September 25, 2001. Owens Collection, MGP. 18. See Kevin Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black 39. Ibid., 2. Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth 40. LaDonna Harris, 55. Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina 41. Open letter from E. A. Owens, president of Press, 1996); Neil Wynn, The Afro-American and the the Lawton chapter of the NAACP, July 6, 1966, p. Second World War (New York: Holmes and Meier 2, Folder 1, Owens Collection, MGP. Publishers, 1976);August Meier and Elliot Rudwick, 42. "A Struggle for Equality-A Community CORE: A Study in Civil Rights, 1942-1968 (New View," p. 22. York: Oxford University Press, 1973). 43. See Frederick C. Luebke, ed., Ethnicity on the 19. For a discussion of racism and violence in Great Plains (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press the Great Plains, see Clare V. McKanna Jr., "Black and Center for Great Plains Studies, 1980). Enclaves of Violence: Race and Homicide in Great 44. Charles Mangel, "The Remarkable Fred Plains Cities, 1890-1920," Great Plains Quarterly 23 Harris," Look Magazine, March 18, 1969, 76. (Summer 2003): 147-60. 45. Maggie Gover, "We Called Ourselves THE 20. George Lynn Cross, Blacks in White Colleges: GROUP: The Story of a Small GROUP of People Oklahoma's Landmark Cases (Norman: University Who Changed a City and Each Other" (unpub- of Oklahoma Press, 1975), 29. lished manuscript), 7. 21. Ibid. 46. See Sheryl L. Lindsley, Charles A. Braithwaite, 22. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher and Danney Gobel, A and Kristin L. Ahlberg, "Mending the Sacred Hoop: Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography ofAda Identity Enactment and the Occupation of Wounded Lois Sipuel Fisher (Norman: University of Oklahoma Knee," Great Plains Quarterly 22 (Spring 2002): 115-26 Press, 1996); Cross, Blacks in White Colleges. 47. LaDonna Harris, 54. 23. LaDonna Harris, in a telephone interview 48. For a thorough biography of Fred Harris that with author, March 11, 2002. charts the course of his political career, see Richard 24. Cross, Blacks in White Colleges, 32. Lowitt, Fred Harris: His Journey from Liberalism to 25. LaDonna Harris, draft of biographical profile, Populism (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, p. 1, LHC, NAES College. 2002). 26. For a discussion of the significance of Indianness 49. LaDonna Harris, interview, November 20, in defining American culture (and the tendency 2000; Fred Harris, in a telephone interview with of whites to mimic Indian rituals and culture), see author, October 2, 2001. 226 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2005

50. Kathryn Harris Tijerina, in a telephone Women's Advisory Council on the War on Poverty. interview with author, 28 July 2003. For a discussion of 010, see Daniel M. Cobb, '"Us 51. LaDonna Harris, interview, November 20, Indians Understand the Basics': Oklahoma Indians 2000. and the Politics of Community Action, 1964-1970," 52. Ibid. Western Historical Quarterly 33, no. 1 (2002): 41-66. 53. Fred Harris, interview, October 2, 2001. 74. Malvina Stephenson, "They Communicate 54. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, in Comanche," Sunday Star, November 15, 1964. 2001. 75. LaDonna Harris, draft of biographical profile, 55. "Onward!" Fred Harris, campaign literature, p. 2, LHC, NAES College. Oklahoma gubernatorial race, 1962, Folder 5, Box 76. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, 50, Fred Harris Collection (hereafter FHC), MGP, 2001. Lawton, OK. 77. Ibid. 56. Ibid. 78. Fred Harris, "American Indians-New Destiny," 57. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, 89thCong., Is' sess., Congressional Record-Senate 112, 2001. pt. 7 (April 21, 1966):8311. 58. LaDonna Harris, interview, November 20, 79. Fred Harris, interview, October 2, 2001. 2000. 80. LaDonna Harris, in a telephone interview 59. Ibid., 9. with author, October 15, 2003. LaDonna Harris is 60. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, quick to point out that she and Fred were co-opting 2001. derogatory language as a way to marginalize the 61. LaDonna Harris, interview, November 20, racist overtones. This is quite similar to the way 2000. in which Hispanic Americans reclaimed the word 62. Ibid. "Chicano" as their own to erase the negative impli- 63. The teamwork of Fred and LaDonna Harris cations once carried in the usage of the word. brought them to the attention of journalist Myra 81. Fred Harris, "American Indians-New Destiny," MacPherson, who included them in her book on 8311. political couples. She notes the close relationship 82. Tom Malone, "Wife Helps Harris on the of the Harrises as well as their political partner- Warpath," unidentified newspaper, Folder 9, Box 286, ship. See Myra McPherson, The Power Lowers: An Fred Harris Collection (hereafter FHC), Carl Albert Intimate Look at Politicians and Their Marriages Congressional Research and Studies Center (hereafter (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1975), especially CACRSC), University of Oklahoma (hereafter OU). 417-24. 83. "Sooner Senator's Wife Wows Them," Wichita 64. "Sooner Wife Wows Them," Wichita Eagle, Eagle, March 20, 1965, 6B. March 20, 1965, 6B. 84. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25,2001. 65. Wauhillau La Hay, "Wife Shares Political It is important to note that LaDonna Harris's own defi- Triumph," New York World Telegram and Sun, nition of assimilation means to no longer exist. For her, January 8, 1965. assimilation into mainstream society would be to give 66. LaDonna Harris, interview, November 20, up her existence as a Comanche Indian. 2000. 85. Jean Simpson, "Sooner Senator's Comanche 67. Aulena Gibson, interview with author, Spouse Captivates Capital Crowd," Tulsa Tribune, October 2, 2001, Lawton, OK. March 27, 1965, 2. 68. Laura Harris, interview, July 24, 2003. 86. "LaDonna Harris Loves Role of Key Aid to 69. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, Senator," OklahomaJournal, September 10, 1965, 5. 2001; Fred Harris, interview, October 2, 2001; 87. Ibid. Beverly Saffa Stapleton, interview with author, 88. Charles Mangel, "Warpaint for the Senator's September 23, 2001, Lawton, OK. Wife," Look Magazine, April 4, 1967, 24. 70. Fred R. Harris, Potomac Fewer (New York: W. 89. Fred Harris, "American Indians-New Destiny." W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1977), p. 104. 90. Mangel, "Warpaint for the Senator's Wife." 71. MacPherson, Power Looers, 422. 91. Mary Ann Weston, Natioe Americans in the 72. LaDonna Harris, interview, September 25, News: Images of Indians in the Twentieth-Century 2001. Press (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996), 163. 73. LaDonna Harris helped found 010 in 1965. 92. Ibid. This organizations sought to find ways to improve 93. Mangel, "Warpaint for the Senator's Wife." economic and educational opportunities for Native 94. MacPherson, Power Lowers, 326. Americans while also preserving native cultures. 95. Ernest Woods to Fred Harris, May 1, 1967, Harris served as president of 010 until 1968 when she emphasis in original, Folder 1, Box 68, FHC, stepped down to chair President Lyndon B. Johnson's CACRSC, OU. HER HERITAGE IS HELPFUL 227

96. Statement of Robert Kennedy about the tes- ment. Friedan exposed the sense of emptiness many timony of Mrs. Harris on behalf of the American women felt in the socially constrained role of wife Indian, 90th Cong., 1" sess., Congressional Record- and mother and ultimately shaped both scholarship Senate 113, pt. 14 (July 13, 1967): 9581. on women and the public discourse on gender roles. 97. Dan Blackburn, "LaDonna Harris is a Senate See also Sara M. Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Wife with More on Her Mind than Mid-Afternoon Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the Teas," Washington PostlPotomac May 24, 1970, 26. New Left (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979); Alice 98. See Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, York: Dell Publishing, 1963).This book is largely cred- 1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota ited with sparking the second-wave feminist move- Press, 1989).